A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hildegard as musical hagiographer 217
Table 3 (cont.)
3 De patria etiam earum
et de aliis regionibus
viri religiosi et sapientes
ipsis adiuncti sunt,
qui eas in virginea custodia
servabant et qui eis in omnibus
ministrabant.
4 Deus enim
in prima muliere presignavit
ut mulier a viri custodia
nutriretur.
5 Aer enim volat
et cum omnibus creaturis
offfijicia sua exercet,
et fijirmamentum eum sustinet
ac aer in viribus istius pascitur.
6 (7) Deus enim rorem in illas misit,
de quo multiplex fama crevit,
ita quod omnes populi
ex hac honorabili fama
velut cibum gustabant.
7 (8) Sed diabolus in invidia sua
istud irrisit,
qua nullum opus Dei
intactum dimisit.
And from their fatherland
and from other regions,
men who were religious and wise
were joined to them,
and they kept them in virginal
protection and ministered to them
in all things.
For God
foreshadowed in the fijirst woman
that woman, by the protection of man,
should be nurtured.
For the air flies,
and, with all created things,
it fulfijills its duties,
and the fijirmament supports it,
and the air is nourished by its powers.
For God sent a dew upon them,
from which manifold renown grew,
so that all the people
feasted from this honorable renown,
as if it were a meal.
But the devil, in his envy,
mocked this [God’s work];
by that envy, no work of God
has he left undefijiled.
[chapter—responsory—hymn—versicle and response]
8 (6) (Gospel antiphon:)
Et ideo puelle iste
per summum virum
sustenabantur,
vexillate in regali prole
virginee nature.
And therefore those girls,
by the highest man
were upheld,
emblazoned with the royal offfspring
of virginal nature.
Musically, these three antiphons (4–6) are in the same mode (E deuterus),
and they elaborate three groups of common thematic material (see Example
4). Group A opens with a rising fijifth (E-h), emphasizes the note e at its
upper boundary, and cadences from a tone below on h. Group B decorates